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This article was originally published as: Maj, S. P., & Veal, D. R. (2010). Using State Model Diagrams to Manage Secure Layer 2 Switches. International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, 10(9), 141-144. Original article available here

Abstract

A secure network is only as strong as its weakest link. It is recognized that the source of many security breaches are from users within an organization. User endpoints or hosts may be a variety of different devices such as laptops, IP phones and servers. All these user devices are connected via a switch fabric. This switch infrastructure must therefore be appropriately secured. There are standard techniques to provide protection against common attacks such as MAC spoofing, MAC table overflow etc. However, management of OSI layer 2 devices is typically text based using the Command Line Interface. The increasingly prevalent Security Device Manager graphical user interface can be used to configure and manage routers but, currently, cannot be used for securing switches. This paper presents details of using the State Model Diagram user interface for ensuring switches are securely configured.